Liquid container unit

ABSTRACT

A liquid container unit includes a liquid container having a threaded portion to be threaded with a cap and provided at an opening portion through which contained liquid can be taken out or introduced, and a support holder for storing the liquid container. The support holder includes a retaining portion for retaining and supporting a retained portion provided closer to the body of the liquid container than the threaded portion at the opening portion when the liquid container is supported under a standing posture. Between the retained portion and the retaining portion, there is provided a rotation preventing mechanism for preventing relative rotation therebetween.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a liquid container unit associated with a liquid container having an opening portion through which contained liquid can be taken out/introduced.

BACKGROUND ART

A bottle formed of synthetic resin such as a PET bottle as an example of the liquid container described above can be readily formed, thus being suitable for mass production. Also, it has distinguished properties such as high mechanical strength in spite of its light weight. Hence, it is used as a liquid container in a wide range of fields.

Meanwhile, in recent years, positive development has been made for further weight reduction and thickness reduction to meet social needs for resources saving, alleviation of environmental loads.

However, with progress in the thickness reduction of the synthetic resin liquid container, there occurs deterioration in its self-standing ability when the liquid container is placed under a standing posture on a table or the like, thus tending to invite difficulty in its storage. Further, the liquid container would be accidentally collapsed during it use, hence, there was the risk of leakage of the liquid contained therein. Thus far, there has been proposed no effective measure to cope with these problems (no relevant patent documents or non-patent documents being present).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Object to be Achieved by Invention

Therefore, in view of the above-described problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a liquid container unit capable of effectively maintaining the storability of its liquid container and readiness of use even in the event of further progress in the thickness reduction of the liquid container.

Means for Achieving the Object

According to a first characterizing feature of the present invention, a liquid container unit comprises:

-   -   a liquid container having a retained portion provided at an         opening portion through which contained liquid can be taken out         or introduced; and     -   a support holder for storing the liquid container:     -   wherein the support holder includes a retaining portion for         retaining and supporting the retained portion when the liquid         container is supported under a standing posture; and     -   wherein between the retained portion and the retaining portion.         there is provided a rotation preventing mechanism for preventing         relative rotation therebetween.

With the first characterizing feature of the present invention described above, when the support holder storing the liquid container therein is supported under the standing posture, the liquid container is retained and supported via its retained portion by the retaining portion of the support holder. Therefore, even when the liquid container comprises a resin container having insufficient self-standing ability due to its smaller thickness than the conventional article or a bag-like container formed of soft wrapping material of synthetic resin, and an amount of liquid is charged in this liquid container, the liquid container can still be supported under the standing posture in a stable manner inside the support holder.

Further, since there is provided a rotation preventing mechanism for preventing rotation of the retained portion relative to the retaining portion, the orientation of the opening portion relative to the support holder can be stable. Therefore, in the case of use when a threading (screw) type cap is attached to the opening portion of the liquid container, it is possible to prevent the phenomenon of the liquid container being rotated with the cap inside the support holder when one tries to rotate the cap relative to the opening portion. Therefore, the cap can be threadingly attached or detached to/from the liquid container in an easy and reliable manner.

Moreover, since the orientation of the opening portion relative to the support holder is stabilized by the function of the rotation preventing mechanism, even when the opening portion is deformed to have its portion formed narrower along the lateral direction or when a handle is attached to the support holder, this laterally oriented opening portion can always be used with stable orientation.

According to a second characterizing feature of the present invention, a liquid container unit comprises:

-   -   a liquid container having a threaded portion to be threaded with         a cap, the threaded portion being provided at an opening portion         through which contained liquid can be taken out or introduced;         and     -   a support holder for storing the liquid container:     -   wherein the support holder includes a retaining portion for         retaining and supporting a retained portion provided closer to         the body of the liquid container than the threaded portion at         the opening portion when the liquid container is supported under         a standing posture; and     -   wherein between the retained portion and the retaining portion.         there is provided a rotation preventing mechanism for preventing         relative rotation therebetween.

With the second characterizing feature of the present invention described above, by threading the cap to the threaded portion, it is possible to prevent leak of contained liquid through the access opening portion. Moreover, when the support holder storing the liquid container therein is supported under the standing posture, the liquid container is retained and supported via its retained portion by the retaining portion of the support holder. Therefore, even when the liquid container comprises a resin container having insufficient self-standing ability due to its smaller thickness than the conventional article or a bag-like container formed of soft wrapping material of synthetic resin, and an amount of liquid is charged in this liquid container, the liquid container can still be supported under the standing posture in a stable manner inside the support holder.

Further, since there is provided a rotation preventing mechanism for preventing rotation of the retained portion relative to the retaining portion, the orientation of the opening portion relative to the support holder can be stable. Therefore, in the case of use when a threading type cap is attached to the opening portion of the liquid container, it is possible to prevent the phenomenon of the liquid container being rotated with the cap inside the support holder when one tries to rotate the cap relative to the opening portion. Therefore, the cap can be threadingly attached or detached to/from the liquid container in an easy and reliable manner.

Moreover, since the orientation of the opening portion relative to the support holder is stabilized by the function of the rotation preventing mechanism, even when the opening portion is deformed to have its portion formed narrower along the lateral direction or when a handle is attached to the support holder, this laterally oriented opening portion can always be used with stable orientation.

According to a third characterizing feature of the present invention, the retained portion comprises a polygonal-shaped brim portion formed integral with the opening portion and the rotation preventing mechanism includes a rotation preventing face formed in the retaining portion to be engaged with a polygonal outer circumferential portion of the brim portion.

When a liquid container made of resin is molded from a preform by a molding machine, the preform generally includes integrally therewith a brim-like retained portion to be retained to the molding machine and after the molding operation, this retained portion is left as a brim portion at the opening portion. According to the third characterizing feature of the present invention, the retained portion of the liquid container is comprised of this brim portion formed at the opening portion. Therefore, through a simple improvement or modification of forming in advance a retained portion for retaining the preform to the molding machine in a polygonal shape at the time of the blow molding operation and forming a rotation preventing face having a shape corresponding to this polygonal shape at the retaining portion of the support holder, it has become possible to utilize the retained portion for retaining the preform to the molding machine also as the retained portion of the rotation preventing mechanism and also it became possible to store the contents by the cap under the sealed state.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view of a support holder storing a liquid container,

FIG. 2 is a vertical section of the support holder storing the liquid container,

FIG. 3 is a vertical section showing the principal portion of the support holder storing the liquid container,

FIG. 4 is a plane view showing a preform of the liquid container,

FIG. 5 is a front view showing the preform of the liquid container,

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the preform of the liquid container,

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing portions of the liquid container and the support holder,

FIG. 8 is a plane view in partial horizontal section showing a variation of a retained portion and a retaining portion,

FIG. 9 is a plane view in partial horizontal section showing a variation of a retained portion and a retaining portion,

FIG. 10 is a plane view in partial horizontal section showing a variation of a retained portion and a retaining portion,

FIG. 11 is a plane view in partial horizontal section showing a variation of a retained portion and a retaining portion,

FIG. 12 is a plane view in partial horizontal section showing a variation of a retained portion and a retaining portion, and

FIG. 13 is a plane view in partial horizontal section showing a variation of a retained portion and a retaining portion.

MODES OF EMBODYING THE INVENTION

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIGS. 1 through 3, a liquid container unit according to the present invention is comprised of a bottle-like liquid container 3 and a capsule-like support holder 7 for supporting the liquid container 3 in such a manner as to surround it entirely.

The liquid container 3 is a bottle obtained by blow-molding a preform made of polyester (PET) or polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), etc.

At an opening portion 1 through which contained liquid of the liquid container 3 is to be introduced or taken out, a threaded portion 2 is formed. And, to this threaded portion 2, there is detachably threaded a cap 4 made of a synthetic resin.

As shown in FIG. 7, at the base-end side end portion of the opening portion 1, that is, between the threaded portion 2 and the body of the liquid container 3, a brim portion 5 (an example of “a retained portion”) is integrally formed.

FIG. 4, FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 show the preform 9 before the liquid container 3 is blow-molded. As shown in these figures, the brim portion 5 of the liquid container 3 is obtained by keeping or maintaining as it is a brim portion provided integrally with the preform 9 as a retained portion for retaining the preform 9 to the blow molding machine after this blow molding operation.

The support holder 7 is formed by e.g. injection-molding a hard synthetic resin such as acrylic resin, thick polyester resin, hard vinyl chloride, polycarbonate, thick polystyrene, phenol resin, etc.

The support holder 7, as shown in FIGS. 1 through 3, consists essentially of a split capsule 11 formed like a two-split capsule halves to be capable of surrounding mainly the body of the liquid container 3, and a cover member 13 for covering a cap 4 of the liquid container 3.

As indicated by two-dotted line in FIG. 2, the cover member 13 is fitted on/over the cap 4 of the liquid container 3 which is exposed upwardly of the vicinity of the upper end of the split capsule 11.

Incidentally, when the cover member 13 is fitted on the cap 4, by turning this cover member 13 located on the outer side, the cap 4 can be attached/detached to/from the opening portion 1 of the liquid container 3.

Further, if the cover member 13 is removed from the liquid container 3 with the cap 4 being threaded to the opening portion 1 of the liquid container 3, the cap 4 can be separated from the cover member 13.

The split capsule 11 is not two separate members, but is formed integral via a thin hinge portion 12 provided at the bottom. As shown by the two-dotted line in FIG. 2, an opening or closing operation of the split capsule 11 is effected by a pivotal operation via the hinge portion 12.

As the support holder 7 and the cover member 13 are formed of transparent resin, even when the support holder 7 is closed and the cover member 13 is kept being attached, the conditions of the liquid container 3 and the cap 4 stored inside can be visually confirmed from the outside.

The support holder 7 is provided with a retaining portion 6 which is retained automatically to the brim portion 5 (retained portion) of the liquid container 3 when the liquid container 3 is stored in this holder 7. The retaining portion 6 includes a supporting face which is placed in opposition to the lower face of the brim portion 5 along the longitudinal direction of the liquid container 3.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, when the support holder 7 is placed under a standing posture with storing the liquid container 3 therein, the liquid container 3 as a whole or at least a portion of this liquid container 3, e.g. the upper half of its body, will be substantially suspended via the brim portion 5 by the retaining portion 6 of the support holder 7.

That is, according to the present invention, the brim portion 5 provided in the preform 9 originally as a retained portion to be retained to a blow molding machine at the time of blow molding operation of the liquid container 3 is reused, after this molding operation of the liquid container 3, as a retained portion to be retained to the retaining portion 6 of the support holder 7 constituting the liquid container unit.

Further, the liquid container unit according to the present invention includes a rotation preventing mechanism 8 for preventing rotation of the stored liquid container 3 relative to the support holder 7.

As shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, the brim portion 5 of the liquid container 3 is formed with a polygonal shape such as an octagonal shape and the rotation preventing mechanism 8 consists essentially of such polygonal-shaped brim portion 5 and a rotation preventing face 10 formed at the retaining portion 6 so as to be engageable with the polygonal-shaped outer circumference of the brim portion 5.

Namely, the rotation preventing face 10 has a polygonal shape corresponding to the polygonal shape of the brim portion 5. When the liquid container 3 is stored in the support holder 7, this storage is done with the polygonal-shape of the brim portion 5 being in substantial agreement or registry with the polygonal-shape of the rotation preventing face 10.

As the liquid container 3 is prevented from being rotated inside the support holder 7 by the above function of the rotation preventing mechanism 8, one can attach/detach the cap 4 to/from the threaded portion 2 of the liquid container 3 simply by rotating the cap 4 or the cover member 13 while holding the outer side of the support holder 7.

As shown in FIG. 2, as the inner face contour of the support holder 7 corresponds to the outer face contour of the liquid container 3, the thickness of the gap formed between the inner face of the support holder 7 and the liquid container 3 is substantially constant, except for the vicinity of the opening portion 1. However, the support holder 7 is not formed with uniform thickness throughout.

As may be understood from the cross sectional shape of the support holder 7 shown in FIG. 2, in its region corresponding generally to the lower half of the body of the stored liquid container 3, the cross sectional shape of the support holder 7 has a relatively small and approximately constant thickness, except for the locally thinner hinge portion 12. On the other hand, in its region corresponding generally to the upper half of the body, the cross sectional shape of the holder 7 has basically a thickness which is progressively increased toward the retaining portion 6 located upwardly.

Incidentally, although the lower half portion of the support holder 7 has a relatively small thickness, this has sufficient rigidness to withstand being maintained under a stable posture by the bottom face of the support holder 7 even when the liquid container unit is placed in a standing posture on a generally horizontal surface.

The cover member 13 has a cross sectional shape whose thickness progressively increases from the upper end thereof for receiving the vicinity of the upper end of the cap 4 toward the lower end thereof corresponding to the upper end face of the support holder 7.

Further, the diameter of the lower end of the cover member 13 is approximately equal to the diameter of the upper end of the closed support holder 7. Also, the inclination angle of the conical face of the cover member 7 extending upwards from its lower end is substantially equal to the inclination angle of the conical face of the closed support holder 7 extending downwards from its upper end.

As a result, the outer contour of the liquid container unit under the condition when the cover member 13 is placed on the upper end of the closed support holder 7 exhibits a simple and smooth streamlined shape or bullet-like shape as a whole, except for the bottom face of the support holder 7 and the upper face of the cover member 13 which are generally flat.

Other Embodiments

<1> The liquid container unit can be configured to be used in such a manner that the opening portion 1 of the liquid container 3 is basically constantly opened with no cap 4 being provided. Further, the liquid container liquid can be configured such that the unit includes a lid which is opened just by being pulled away, just like a cork stopper. Further, the opening portion 1 may have a shape which is laterally narrowed for greater readiness in taking out contained liquid therethrough. In this case too, the unit can be used with the orientation of the opening portion 1 relative to the support holder 7 being constantly stable by the function of the rotation preventing mechanism 8.

<2> As an alternative configuration of the rotation preventing mechanism 8, the neck portion of the liquid container 3 between the body and the threaded portion 2 may be formed with a polygonal shape and a polygonal-shaped rotation preventing face 10 may be formed at the retaining portion 6 of the support holder 7 projecting radially inwards to be engaged into this neck portion.

<3> The shape of the brim portion 5 can be any other desired polygonal shape as illustrated in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, than the octagonal shape or can be an elliptical shape as illustrated in FIG. 10. Still alternatively, uneven portions may be formed in its circumferential portion as illustrated in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12. By providing the retaining portion 6 of the support holder 7 with an inner circumferential face having substantially same shape as the outer shape of these brim portions 5, the configuration required of the rotation preventing mechanism 8 can be realized.

<4> As illustrated in FIG. 13, the outer circumferential shape of the brim portion 5 may be an externally toothed gear shape and in the retaining portion 6, there may be formed uneven portions having internally toothed gear shape engageable with the externally toothed shape.

<5> The support holder 7 may be embodied such that the liquid container 3 is not provided in the form of a capsule, but in the form of a cage-like frame. The material forming the support holder 7 is not limited to a hard resin, but this can be provided in the form of e.g. a metal frame. Further, the support holder 7 may be configured as a heat-retaining container.

<6> Instead of being formed of synthetic resin, the liquid container may be formed like a bag or the like made of cloth, rubber, etc.

<7> Instead of being fixedly fitted on the cap 4 of the liquid container 3, the cover member 13 may be detachably connected to the vicinity of the upper end of the split capsule 11 under its closed state. In this case, for example, in either the lower end face of the cover member 13 or the upper end face of the split capsule 11, there may be provided a vertically extending cylindrical projection and in the other of the above faces, there may be formed an annular groove into which the projection is to be press-fitted.

Incidentally, although reference marks/numerals are provided in the foregoing description in order to facilitate reference to the accompanying drawings, it is understood that the provision of these marks/numerals is not to limit the scope of the present invention to the specific arrangements illustrated in the drawings. Further, it is needless to say that the present invention may be modified in many ways as long as such such modifications result in deviation from the essential concept of the invention.

Description of Reference Marks/Numerals

1 opening portion

2 threaded portion

3 liquid container

4 cap

5 brim portion (retained portion, rotation preventing mechanism)

6 retaining portion (rotation preventing mechanism)

7 support holder

8 rotation preventing mechanism 

1. A liquid container unit comprising: a liquid container having a retained portion provided at an opening portion through which contained liquid can be taken out or introduced; and a support holder for storing the liquid container: wherein the support holder includes a retaining portion for retaining and supporting the retained portion when the liquid container is supported under a standing posture; and wherein between the retained portion and the retaining portion. there is provided a rotation preventing mechanism for preventing relative rotation therebetween.
 2. A liquid container unit comprising: a liquid container having a threaded portion to be threaded with a cap, the threaded portion being provided at an opening portion through which contained liquid can be taken out or introduced; and a support holder for storing the liquid container: wherein the support holder includes a retaining portion for retaining and supporting a retained portion provided closer to the body of the liquid container than the threaded portion at the opening portion when the liquid container is supported under a standing posture; and wherein between the retained portion and the retaining portion. there is provided a rotation preventing mechanism for preventing relative rotation therebetween.
 3. The liquid container unit according to claim 1, wherein the retained portion comprises a polygonal-shaped brim portion formed integral with the opening portion and the rotation preventing mechanism includes a rotation preventing face formed in the retaining portion to be engaged with a polygonal outer circumferential portion of the brim portion.
 4. The liquid container unit according to claim 2, wherein the retained portion comprises a polygonal-shaped brim portion formed integral with the opening portion and the rotation preventing mechanism includes a rotation preventing face formed in the retaining portion to be engaged with a polygonal outer circumferential portion of the brim portion. 